During the original post, I also mentioned Glenn Beck and how a huge majority of his sponsors were gold sellers. I was told at the time by conservative bloggers that this didn't fit into the same category. Of course gold was going to go up in price during bad economic times, so with or without Mr. Beck's commentary...gold is a good investment!
And it may be....but the price of gold is still dependent upon the demand for gold. And it's in the creation of this demand fueled by Beck's fear-mongering that I objected to.
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post discussing what drives much of the Right's fear mongering entitled PROFITING ON PARANOIA. I discussed a variety of story lines promoted on WND and made the assertion that much of the most extreme rhetoric coming from Fox News and talk radio is designed to promote fear which in turn drives sales of products.
Two weeks ago, I returned to the topic with PROFITING ON PARANOIA REVISTED, an update concerning the 9,000 people who each payed $29.95 to have delivered to all members of Congress a "pink slip" warning them not to raise taxes. A project that raised over $279,000 for a single delivery to Washington.
Now my motivation in writing both of these posts was not to complain that someone was making money on this but to point out that the ONLY way to make these sales is to promote a mood of fear and anger in people. Which seems to be a specialty of both Fox News and WND.
During the original post, I also mentioned Glenn Beck and how a huge majority of his sponsors were gold sellers. I was told at the time by conservative bloggers that this didn't fit into the same category. Of course gold was going to go up in price during bad economic times, so with or without Mr. Beck's commentary...gold is a good investment!
And it may be....but the price of gold is still dependent upon the demand for gold. And it's in the creation of this demand fueled by Beck's fear-mongering that I objected to. If you continually tell people the world as they know it is going to end....they become scared and begin buying gold! So if you follow the money....Beck's sponsors sell gold....gold sells if people are scared....Beck scares people....so demand goes up when people watch Beck. Beck is the gold seller's best friend!
And it's not just me who believes this. Mark Epstein of Merit Financial (which coincidently sells gold) says of Beck's show: "I could care less what people think of him... We advertise on Fox because it makes the phone ring."
Epstein also said gold resonates more with Fox’s viewers "because it’s the angry white man audience - it’s the conservative audience. ... They are distrustful of the government, of the regime."
Bottom line, financial services that sell gold, buy ads so that Beck will promote stories that sell their products. Again, Merit's President Epstein says, gold retailers expect favorable coverage from commentators on whose shows they pay to advertise. "You pay anybody on any network and they say what you pay them to say. They’re bought and sold."
So who gets hurt? Politico tells us about: "Mary Sisak of New Castle, Pa., wrote in August that she contacted Goldline because she saw a television ad featuring Beck, and online endorsements from Levin and Thompson. After spending $5,000 on Swiss Francs, Mary said she learned she could have purchased the same number of coins for $1,600 less."
"How could I be mislead by Glenn Beck, Fred Thompson and Marvin [sic] Levin?" she wrote.
But John Stewart illustrated this point so much better than I. You can view his discussion of this topic by following this link. John Stewart illustrated this point so much better than I